#EnteThiruvananthapuram: The fourth issue of Liveability index, a study conducted by the Institute for Competitiveness every year, has unveiled the list of 50 liveable Indian cities. Mumbai jumps two places and grabs the first position, while Chennai and Hyderabad slipped one position each respectively from their last year’s rank.According to the Liveability Index 2013, Trivandrum bags the top position within the state by securing the 19th position, followed by Kozhikode at 21 and Kochi at 24.The study also shows that South Indian cities including Trivandrum, Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, Coimbatore, Madurai and Bengaluru dominate the top 20 slots. It also shows a negative shift in the ranks of few cities. Cities such as Kochi, Kozhikode, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar etc which earlier appeared as promising cities have faded this year and have fallen extremely from their previous positions.

The Liveability Index is a measure of city’s living environment and perks that attract people to live in a city. It is very different from the concept of ‘quality of life’. According to liveability index, a city is liveable when it directly offers favourable living environment to its people and indirectly benefits as well as attracts the visitors. Favourable living environment includes various measurable factors such as strong infrastructure set-up, presence of quality education and healthcare, safety of its citizenry, planned environment, proficient governance etc.

The framework used for the study is an evolved adaptation of the world-renowned diamond model of Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University. The study is based on 8 core pillars that are demographic, education, health and medical standards, safety, housing option, socio-cultural-natural environment, economic environment, and planned environment. The index is a direct measure of whether people will opt to live in the city and have a better frame of life.The mission of the index is to measure significant drivers of the health and wealth of the community beyond just the monetary value.Institute for Competitiveness, is an independent, international initiative centered in India, dedicated to conducting and disseminating meaningful research in the fields of strategy, economic development, productivity and prosperity. The institute’s core activities revolve around spread ideas to various bodies, including companies and governments, through events, publications and programs.